John Crow laws

The Town of Culpeper is having a “buzzard problem.” Big birds are hanging out doing their business where the town doesn’t want them. Forty miles southwest, the City Council of Charlottesville discussed a perceived problem with assemblages of humanoids on their mall November 19. Members of the public made colorful use of language in defense of the humanoids' right to sleep on the sidewalk, use base language, and solicit funds from passers-by. What options are in a town’s toolbox for dealing with unwanted wildlife?

Occasionally, a dead vulture or a replica thereof may be hung upside down from a tree to get the vultures’ attention. “Using effigies deters roosting,” said Culpeper Public Works Director Jim Hoy, according to the Free Lance-Star. Other means: Beginning December 3, town employees, along with officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will make another attempt to run the unwanted residents out of town– an aerial bombardment, according to the Free Lance-Star, "with loud firecracker-type devices, will be used to get the birds to move their roosts to rural areas. If that fails, some of the more than 70 buzzards will probably be shot."

I have a liking for turkey vultures. They consume animals killed by automobiles. They are a working part of the eco-system. They are monogamous, they live a long time, they soar, they don’t talk. They can projectile vomit on you if you get in their space, but generally they do their business of cleaning up. (Their species name, Cathartes aura, means “cleaning breeze” in Latin).

So, the offending birds may be shot. The protection conferred by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 is not absolute, says the town spokesperson, noting that licensed federal agents will wield the firearms.~Commentator Bill Emory puts up a new photo nearly every day at billemory.com/blog.

Note: The online version of this story originally ended with a question: What is the exception [to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act]? Town spokesperson Wally Bunker quickly contacted us to note that the exception is contained within the law. So the story above has been amended.–editor

4 comments

So basically what you are acknowledging is that the turkey vultures have an interest in civic responsibility that the bums on the mall do not possess.

Well stated.

HollowBoy November 27th, 2012 | 12:51pm

The picture is that of our other vulture, the Black Vulture, distinguished from the Turkey Vulture by its shorter tail, black head, and white wing tips(Turkey Vultures have a light trailing edge on the underwing and the adult birds have red heads).
Both vultures are useful scavengers, cleaning up roadkill very effectively. A difference is that sometimes the more aggressive Black Vulture will attack small animals that are sick or injured. They can be a problem for farmers if they hang around where livestock is giving birth, attacking newborn animals sometimes.
Vultures are lovely birds in flight. I do hope Culpeper will stick to nonlethal means of removal from places they are not suited to.

jimi hendrix November 27th, 2012 | 2:40pm

Well, sounds like one of them contributes to the planet and the other does not. As too the City Hall Occupier duo, learn to speak with civility and clarity. The shock value of cursing in this meeting does not win you point, even with the poster child of white liberal guilt... KS.

Sara November 27th, 2012 | 10:53pm

Buzzards yawn too....have seen it.

Go to Zion Crossroads there are way more than 70 at the garbage dumps....HUNDREDS!